Prostitution, sometimes referred to as the world’s oldest profession, is the business or practice of providing s*xual services to another person in return for payment. Prostitution is a branch of the s*x industry which also consist of businesses providing s*x-related products and services like call girls, adult movie theatres, pornography, s*x shops, strip clubs, etc. directly or indirectly.
Most s*x worker activists groups reject the word prostitute and had since the late 1970s used the term s*x worker. Prostitutes in a bid to rebrand their profession and probably make themselves feel better have used other terms like commercial s*x worker (CSW), tantric engineer, s*x trade worker, hooker, escort, whore.
Prostitution has been said to increase the spread of STDs, incidence of human trafficking, and violence against women.
One of the major sources for the spread of HIV in Africa is prostitution. According to a study, encounters with prostitutes produced 84% of new HIV infections in adult males in Accra, Ghana.
Augustine of Hippo (November 354-August 28, 430) Bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria) held that: “If you expel prostitution from society, you will unsettle everything on account of lusts”. A lot of thoughts differ from Augustine’s. Some people believe prostitution does no good to anyone or any society, while others thinking along the same line believe prostitution does more harm than good.
Some feminists argue that prostitution is a form of male domination and violence against women. They argue that, in most cases prostitution is not a conscious and calculated choice. They believe most women who become prostitutes do so due to extreme poverty, human trafficking (responsible for 79% of human trafficking), drug addiction, past trauma, and other unfortunate circumstances. In ancient Rome, abandoned children were raised as prostitutes.
Many children are sold into the global s*x trade every year. Often they are kidnapped or orphaned and sadly sometimes sold by their own families. Thailand has the worst child s*x trafficking record, followed closely by Brazil, a country where the government not only approves prostitution, but also give prostitutes tips on how to sell more. The Brazilian government’s website on prostitution, Brazil’s Labour and Employment Ministry Primer on S*x Professional, offers advice for those who wish to become prostitutes. The site, among others, teaches prostitutes how to “get an encounter”, advising them to “become visually appealing; wait in place (to wait for someone who didn’t promise to come); seduce with the look; approach the customer; charm with the voice; seduce with affectionate nicknames; conquer with the touch; involve with perfume; offer the customer specialties; recognize the customer’s potential; dance for the customer; dance with the customer; satisfy the customer’s ego; praise the customer”.
Major sources of trafficked persons include Nigeria, Thailand, China, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, from being allowed but unregulated, to a punishable crime or to a regulated profession.
Sweden, Norway and Iceland have criminalized the buying, but not the selling, of s*xual services. In other words, the prostitute commits no crime, but the client is the criminal.
In United Kingdom, France, Brazil and Canada, prostitution is legal, but associated activities such as public solicitation, operating a brothel, and other forms of pimping are prohibited.
In Netherlands, Germany, most of Australia and parts of Nevada, prostitution and the employment of prostitutes are legal, but regulated.
In New Zealand, the laws against operating a brothel, pimping and street prostitution are struck down, but prostitution is hardly regulated at all.
Despite prostitution being regarded as a social menace, it has gone global birthing a form of tourism; s*x tourism. S*x tourism emerged in the late 20thcentury as a controversial aspect of Western tourism and globalisation. It means travelling, typically from developed to underdeveloped nations, to engage in s*xual activity with prostitutes.
S*x tourism exists throughout Brazil, and studies show that one-fourth of the 1,514 tourist destinations frequented by citizens and tourists had an active sexual commercial market for children and adolescents. In fact, prostitutes in Brazil who know how well developed s*xual tourism is in the country are gearing up for the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in The country as they are reported to be enrolling in language school in order to be able to communicate well and facilitate their businesses as football fans will troop into the country for the world cup.
Estimates place the annual revenue generated from the global prostitution industry to be over $100 billion, one good reason why some people are advocating it should be legal everywhere.
Many countries have s*x worker advocacy groups which lobby against criminalization and discrimination of prostitutes. There is COYOTE in the United States (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), and the North American Task Force on Prostitution; Scarlet Alliance in Australia; National Network of S*x Professionals in Brazil, and internationally, International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights and the Network of S*x Work Projects.
In 1949, the UN General Assembly adopted a convention stating that “prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person”, and this required all signing parties to punish pimps and brothel owners and operators and abolish all special treatment or registration of prostitutes.
While most religious and socio-cultural views are against prostitution, there are still organizations advocating the rights of prostitutes who they believe should be treated like other workers, and get all entitlements other workers get.
These activists make their case look so good and they’ve succeeded convincing some people prostitution should be made legal.
Is there something wrong with the world or prostitution isn’t such a big deal like I thought?
its just one sign to tell the world that the end has come. So be ready to welcome christ.